I posted this to another question as the answer, but the answer is in here:

Quick look: Error 1045 means it timed out. Most of Windows allows 20 seconds for something to happen, like a service starting, and if it doesn't, it times out. Similar problems here state that MySQL daemon [big difference between mysqld and mysql, first is daemon (service) and second is client (connector)].

However, you are going to run into continual problems for many reasons, half of them Santa Clara's MySQL Team's fault, the other half Redmund Microsoft Team's fault.

Some of the things you want to do [because you keep uninstalling and reinstalling with no progress]:

A.) Note Well! Once you assign the role of domain controller to Windows Server 2003, Data Execution Prevention [DEP] denies the launch and execution of all programs other than Microsoft programs. Therefore, things such as your motherboard drivers, nVidia, for example, which depends on an Apache for the GUI and Administrator's interface, will now no longer work after the role assignment of Domain Controller. You will also note that Distributed Component Object Model [DCOM] has been implemented upon role assignment, along with COM. These will absolutely prevent launch and execution on a per object basis, that is, in a refined set of not only programs, but the objects that are called by those programs. Thus, even if something like Network Access Manager [NAM], which is the nVidia Firewall and drivers installed as motherboard driver components, tries to launch and/or execute, it will be prevented by the object modelling and the DEP.

B.) You will note that, in general, installs to Windows Server 2003 systems using the standard msi will misplace the MySQL Service in all ControlSet's. Thus, you will find the the service with a bad name is under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services instead of where it belongs
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MySQL
and in the outer block of the service containger [first key name] the name of the service will be wrong and will be MySQL Ser as a String (ab) Description.

C.) There will be no proper service for MySQL under the second key, which will not even exist.

The command, from a DOS prompt, to install the service is similar to:

"E:\MySQL5\bin\mysqld-nt.exe" --install MySQL5

if that matches your path. Using white spaces in directory names eventually will break something; installing to the standard Windows "C:\Program Files\MySQL Server 5.0\" is both rather lazy and will eventually break something. The suggested path would be better on a drive not the same as your operating system and something simple, like "E:\MySQL5" or similar.

This way, you can remove the entirety, as long as you also clean the Registry too.

Regardless of how you back up MySQL, once you uninstall MySQL completely, there does not appear to be a way to recover it, regardless of the protests of the MySQL Team, because if done properly the password is hashed [encrytped] and you cannot duplicate that encryption on a new install, hence, the saved database is useless and you've already lost the data. Even a simple MD5 hash will not repeat upon reinstall; recovering the data is nearly impossible, and the number of possible catastrophic losses due to corrupted passwords, even within the databases themselves, exponentially increases with each security dimension applied. That is, with the MySQL hash, followed by DEP, followed by DCOM, the number of possible lockouts has increased 2^3 and not just three times. Adding even more security features eventually leads to a point where recovery cost becomes impossible to justify as it eats up profit exponentially as well.

Oftentimes, the install of things such as phpMyAdmin and MySQLAdministrator link to sublayers of MySQL password protection and a reinstall of MySQL will be blocked by both of them, or, you will have to reinstall them as well and hope that you can connect them to the MySQL databases; often this too becomes impossible requiring a base zero reinstall of everything, hence, total loss of all data, again.

In fact, the subsequent install of any program that interacts with MySQL has the potential to destroy the connectivity, functionality, and integrity of databases; as has often been seen in the field, even if protested that is has not been seen in the MySQL Team test environments.

The prime example is the promotion of a Windows 2003 Server to the role of Domain Controller. But Apache for the nVidia motherboards stopped by the role is a second prime example. After that, any MySQL or PHP using program has the great potential to lock you out and result in a useless database, as well as a combined Apache, PHP, MySQL, Perl, and SSl installation. All of this magnificent security is compromised when MySQL fails and one is told to then set the root password to nil, leaving the server wide open to devastating attacks which have taken place and are well documented by such sites as guitarworld and MySpace.com

In all of this, the Santa Clara Team has chosen to completely ignore their single greatest problem: the Login Problem.

Relying instead on others to research the problem and try to come up with a solution, which, it seems, is going to be rejected out of hand by the Santa Clara Team anyway; the solution from the Univeristy of Pennsylvania and the oldest and most experienced engineers and professionals in the entire computer industry worldwide have been thusly rejected out of hand by the secondary West Coast San Jose and Santa Clara based teams who, in fact, lack the knowledge and experience by well over 30 years [the West Silicon Valley lags the Silicon Valley East by 30 years].

Aside from refusing to recognise a problem [by calling it an issue, which is nothing less than "denial"] by the West teams, there then arises the problem of refusal to fix it themselves [because this would entail admitting to an error and that would mean they would also have to admit their prior "denial"]; so, refusal to accept the outside solution is a defense mechanism to reinforce denial and support the position of a stonewall opposition to correction.

Third, it may be that they cannot read and understand this English [what I am saying here] and if that is true, they most certainly cannot understand the Engineering behind what I am saying and it can be concluded that they simply do not know the solution because they do not know the problem; that is, they do not know the hardware and therefore cannot know the software.

This would be typical of most engineers and programmingers with beginners' experience of under 20 years in the industry, and it shows.

I am, personally, getting a little tired of doing a multibillion dollar company's work and them waiting there for a handout from me for free.

But I will continue for one last effort: Put in an emergency override module or gui that works only at the local server console and allows the administrator to reset the password without qualification and allows him thereby to connect and fix all of the other problems. That is the solution. It has been the solution for every device since explosives, spaceships [rockets like the Titan and Atlas, not some fool's UFO, don't even try to denigrate by snied innuendo Team], the Atomic Bomb, Thermonuclear Weapons, and everything else. An Override is a very simple concept easily understood by the simplest of minds; perhaps not by morons and idiots, but certainly by simpletons. And much more easily implemented than this multimillion worded ongoing string of documents and complaints about "I can't log on!"

I do, in fact, happen to know both the hardware and the software better than the Team; I designed the hardware and the languages that are behind the MySQL scripting database interpretor.

Microsoft listens to me, Intel and AMD listen to me, IBM and AT&T listen to me, the federal government listens to me; what then is Santa Clara and California's problem, a hearing problem or a reading problem? Or is it that green-eyed monstor envy and his sleazy brother pride that keeps the Pacificers from acquiescing to superior knowledge and ability and learning and getting the job done?

should fix your problem, but there is not yet a reference to getting your database back because I have not been able to retrieve a MySQL database yet and don't know if it's possible.

And if they put all of this in a simple gui, "I can't log on" would turn into "I can log in! It's great! Thanks you guys!"

I'll forego the credit, if they'll only act like intelligent adults and "listen."

Otherwise, I'll just go to some friends who started AOL, and Yahoo, and eBay, and say "You now what, we need a better database engine and a team that listens without getting all huffy about the supercoding abilities." They'll pay to develope it, move it to a nice state where people do listen, like Pennsylvania, in a nice city where people who listened designed computers, both hardware and software, and we can all move on to megacontent and buyout MySpace.com

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